Earthquake Death Toll Rises to Nearly 600 in China

By ANDREW JACOBS

August 6, 2014

BEIJING — The death toll from an earthquake that struck Yunnan Province in southwestern China on Sunday has jumped to 589 as rescuers reached isolated villages and recovered the bodies of 179 more victims, state media reported Wednesday.

Officials said at least nine people remained missing.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.1, injured nearly 2,900 people and destroyed more than 12,000 homes in the poor, mountainous region. Landslides and heavy rainfall initially complicated rescue efforts, but the official Xinhua news agency said major roads leading to the areas that were the most severely affected had since been reopened.

Rescue workers have pulled more than 200 survivors from the wreckage of collapsed buildings, many of them mud-brick homes that were leveled by the quake, according to media reports.

Xinhua said more than 10,000 troops from the People’s Liberation Army had been sent to the disaster zone, along with six helicopters and two cargo planes. The earthquake has prompted an outpouring of some $39 million in donations, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

On Monday, Prime Minister Li Keqiang walked three miles along muddy roads to survey the disaster zone, according to the state media. “Saving one more person means saving the happiness of a whole family,” he told rescuers, according to Xinhua. “Saving lives is the top priority. Don’t stop. Spare no effort.”

Officials said tons of debris that blocked the Niulan River on the border of Ludian and Qiaojia counties had created a dangerously unstable barrier holding back a lake, forcing the evacuation of 4,200 residents, Xinhua said. In all, about 230,000 people have been displaced by the earthquake, it said.